Dress Up, Dine In

When the company you keep is primarily 6-7 year olds and a darling baby bean, it's easy to feel young all the time. In actuality my 30th birthday isn't too far off. So, to rip off a sorority sister's blog idea, I decided to make a list of thirty things I'd like to do before that milestone birthday. It was started in October of 2011 and the final goal was added yesterday. My younger (and more singular) self would probably have compiled a completely different set. My current self is looking forward to this "map" to getting older.                                                        30 x 30 1. Have a baby 2. Finish renovating the ranch 3. Go back to Europe 4. Take the puffs on a hike 5. Get something publis...

In the summer we reclined with good books in the backyard...just the six of us. Three dogs, two almost parents, and one unborn bean. It was in this very setting that I discovered the most exact words on what it meant to be a mother. They were honest. They were simple. They were truth. "We change shape, she continued, we buy low-heeled shoes, we cut our long hair. We begin to carry in our bags half-eaten rusks, a small tractor, a shred of beloved fabric, a plastic doll. We loose muscle tone, sleep, reason, perspective. Our hearts begin to live outside our bodies. They breathe, they eat, they crawl and-look!-they walk, they begin to speak to us. We learn that we must sometimes walk an inch at a time, to stop and examine every stick, every stone, every squashed tin along the way. We get used to not getting where we were going. We learn to darn, perhaps to cook, to patch the knees of dungarees. We get used to living with a love that suffuses us, suffocates us, blinds us, controls us....

So, we had a baby and had so much fun with her, family coming into town, and the holiday season that there wasn't time to blog about it. Now as I type (one handed cause Eileen's in the other) it's difficult to put into words the way becoming parents has changed us. For now I'll just say that if the new year is even half as spectacular as how the last one ended, we'll take it. We welcomed 2012 with a cozy night in the ranch and some of our favorite souls. Happy New Year, friends.

I'm kind of bipolar when it comes to where I shop. Sometimes I love the draw of big name stores and will most definitely be first in line (with Eileen in tow) when Tiffany & Co. opens here this Spring. Other times I'd rather frequent local places for a more personal experience. I think it's important to highlight these gems that give you a unique gift, look, or good karma for supporting "small" business. The first in my "shop around the state" is OC Tanner . I have been to their old store downtown, their Park City one, and their vault when we used to live up the street in the rental. Their most impressive location by far is their flagship store on State St. With former lives as the city library in 1905 and the Hansen Planetarium in 1965, the building was reincarnated as OC Tanner's in 2009. Inside you'll find it restored as close to the original design as possible and housing some of the most gorgeous jewels and jewelry lines. You feel like a...

With the exception of the obvious lifestyle overhaul that comes along with pregnancy, I feel blessed to have "coasted" through it. It really has been an easy go. That made me worried that while I was so preoccupied with work and getting ready to temporarily leave my 25 babies for our new one, I would miss the crazy nesting period. Instead I've pushed my normal laid-back self to the side in favor of doing tons of baby laundry, trying to get on top of all my own personal things that need to be taken care of, and wanting to clean...rather than sleep. The epitome of this mother-hen-ness was me in Home Depot on a Sunday night buying furniture moving blankets so Seth and I could swap the dressers in the front room and the baby nursery. Nesting during the week takes the form of being cranky about not being able to get to the vintage furniture store. We need a small bookshelf for Eileen. That's my mama mission for tomorrow. If I can finish decorating her room by tomorrow too ...

After living here for three years we've learned to take the weird with the excellent. Fall in Utah is absolutely stunning and makes you really glad you live here. We typically celebrate with a hike through the canyons, but this year we settled for "preggopotamus hiking" to accommodate baby and my growing belly. Fall also means the return of blouse-y tops, leggings, and boots. I've been lucky enough to "fit" into my typical clothes for most of this pregnancy and I aim to continue my boycott of maternity clothes in these final months. Free People (a company I loved pre-baby too) is the greatest of my life. Their flowing hippie fabric lets me feel like myself even while my body is changing. Their tops made an appearance on our hiking excursion and crib set-up. Don't worry, we realize there's more to having a baby than fashion. We've been working on getting the nursery ready. Putting up Eileen's crib was a family affair and quite the adventure.

I pretty much can't manage any kind of a coherent blog post in the middle of the week. Instead, enjoy these bump! pictures where you can witness the growth of our two babies (Eileen and our Ranch). in the beginning @ 5 weeks in the master bedroom @ 10 weeks in Seth's main floor mancave @ 15 weeks in my only pair of maternity pants (Lilly of course) @ 18 weeks before our 1st ultrasound (and before I got the red paint off the molding) @ 22 weeks (and still working on scraping the molding you can't see in this picture) @ 26 weeks in my first day of school outfit (vintage Lilly minus the school appropriate cover-up & minus the red paint!) @ 27 weeks (Eileen's first Gator game day)